International migration policies: conceptual problems

Kritz reviews national concepts and policies of migration. She examines how nation-states approach migration and how they define who is a migrant. Policies for permanent, temporary, and illegal migrants are examined for selected countries. While the traditional permanent immigration countries--Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US--continue to admit large numbers of permanent migrants, they are also admitting growing numbers of temporary migrants. Other countries, in Europe and the developing world, have different migration histories and use other approaches to admit foreigners--migrants are generally admitted on a temporary basis for work or other purposes. Growing numbers of these temporary migrants, however, do become long-term or permanent settlers, and the distinction between permanent and temporary migration policies becomes a short-term legal one rather than a long-term sociological one. Governments have been seeking those policy instruments that would allow them to improve control over who enters and settles in their territories, and temporary migration policies are the measures to which they are turning. While increasing restriction characterizes the policy stance of most countries toward international migration, this does not necessarily mean that the number of migrants entering is declining. Kritz argues that the concepts employed by countries in their immigration policies frequently do not correspond to the reality, making it necessary to examine the actual context.     

The prevention of gambling problems in youth: a conceptual framework

Despite increased awareness of the need to begin educating young children about the potential dangers of gambling, empirical knowledge of the prevention of adolescent problem gambling and its translation into science-based prevention initiatives is scarce. This paper poses the question of whether or not the common elements of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse prevention programs can be applied to gambling prevention. Common risk and protective factors across addictions, including gambling, appear to point to the need to develop a general model of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The authors present the need for science-based prevention initiatives and describe a general adolescent risk-taking model as a basis for science-based prevention of adolescent problem gambling and other risk behaviors.     

Evaluation in residential treatment: the conceptual dilemmas.

Determining effectiveness of residential treatment must be preceded by basic decisions on precisely what the goals are, and in what time-frame and dimensions--symptoms or adaptability--will achievement be measured.     

An analysis of concept learning: Simple conceptual control and definition-based conceptual control

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Concept learning can involve either contingency shaping of stimulus-class discriminations or the application of definitions of the concepts. Experimental behavior...     

Self-Rated Health and Attitudes About U.S. Health Care Policy

How does one’s own health influence attitudes about national health care policy? Previous research has documented a reliable (though bounded) role of personal interest in shaping policy preferences, but little is known about the role that personal health plays in shaping these attitudes. Using recent General Social Survey data, we find that those with poorer self-rated health were more likely to endorse a strong role for government in providing health care, and more likely to endorse increased spending on health care. Further analysis suggested that this relationship was moderated by political ideology. Implications for better understanding the source of health policy support are discussed.     

Trouble in Paradise - a disabled person's right to the satisfaction of a self-defined need: some conceptual and practical problems

This paper questions the usefulness of the rights-based approach to ameliorating the social situation of disabled people in Britain and advances two criticisms. First, that rights and self-defined needs have been under-theorised by disability theorists to the extent that they have insufficiently appreciated the problems that these approaches pose. The paper suggests that rights to appropriate resources to satisfy self-defined needs will generate vast numbers of competing rights claims and that the resulting tendency of rights to conflict has been under-appreciated. Secondly, that there has been little consideration of how these conflicts might be reconciled. The first two sections of the paper look at the concepts of ascribed and self-defined needs, respectively, whilst the final one looks at some of the problems of the rights approach and some of the difficulties of making self-defined need the basis of rights claims.     

Official statisticians as conceptual innovators

Statistics are impossible without concepts. As the sociologist of invention Colum Gilfillan put it in 1952, ‘counting begins with definition of the thing to be counted’. This article is concerned with statistics on science, technology and innovation (STI). It documents how official statisticians have, over time, defined the concepts used for measurement. Debates on definitions of the concepts measured started at the very beginning of STI measurement in the first half of the twentieth century. Then, from the early 1960s onward, methodological manuals were developed to conventionalize the definitions. This article claims that the manuals did not have the expected result. They did not stabilize the definitions and the statistics based thereon.     

Bulimia nervosa. Associated physical problems.

1. Bulimia involves more serious problems than previously thought. Bulimia nervosa is a psychiatric disorder characterized by binge eating followed by some form of combination of purging, including laxative or diuretic use, strenuous exercise, and self-induced vomiting to eliminate unwanted calories. 2. Physical problems of bulimia include oral and neck problems, metabolic acid-base imbalances, volume depletion, hypochloremia, hypokalemia, hyponatremia, hypomagnesia, hypocalcemia, hyperuricemia, gastrointestinal problems, and edema. 3. The physical problems of bulimia are less well known than those of anorexia. Nurses must be alert for clues, act on suspicions, use a nonjudgmental approach, and be knowledgeable of all assessment factors, including psychological parameters.     

Performance measurement: Some conceptual issues

Measures of how well a system is operating are clearly of interest to a wide range of users, from organizational researchers to system managers. The current literatures in such areas as “performance measurement, ” “organizational effectiveness, ” and the like show little consistency in their definitions of terms or in their methods for generating measures. The present paper attempts a clarification of these issues in the form of a conceptual minimalist position which requires only three basic definitions, and leaves, as far as possible, all remaining issues open to empirical investigation.We first review the literature on “organizational effectiveness” contrasting the organizational goals and systems paradigms, and note the lack of either theoretical or empirical convergence between the two. An examination of the nature of effectiveness statements suggests that this failure of convergence flows mainly from the different criterion sets generated by the two paradigms — and, importantly, that one should not expect convergence on a single measure or set of measures which uniquely define how well a system is performing. One's view of how well a given system is performing is a function of where one stands (either theoretically or in relationship to the system), and pursuit of the one true set of performance measures is a futile exercise. Instead, we propose to redirect attention to the identification of the various individuals and groups (“constituencies”) with an interest in system performance, and to the investigation of those items of system relevant information (their “performance measure sets”) which do, in fact, change their evaluations of how well the system is performing. This perspective will, we hope, redirect effort from futile theoretical debate to empirical investigations of what measures are used, by whom, and to what effect, in specific settings.     

Centrality in social networks conceptual clarification

The intuitive background for measures of structural centrality in social networks is reviewed and existing measures are evaluated in terms of their consistency with intuitions and their interpretability.Three distinct intuitive conceptions of centrality are uncovered and existing measures are refined to embody these conceptions. Three measures are developed for each concept, one absolute and one relative measure of the centrality of positions in a network, and one reflecting the degree of centralization of the entire network. The implications of these measures for the experimental study of small groups is examined.     

Adopting children with attachment problems.

This article describes children with significant attachment problems and summarizes the actions needed to increase the probability that such children can be successfully adopted. Healthy and disordered attachment patterns are detailed, as well as the principles and strategies that are important in parenting such children and the parenting characteristics that should be sought in selecting families for children with attachment disorder. Psychological treatment and other postadoption services necessary to support the adoption and the child's ability to successfully form a secure attachment with the adoptive parents are also highlighted.     

Work functioning: a conceptual framework

Adequate and reliable methods for evaluation of clients with work disabilities are crucial for both the individuals who are assessed and for society as a whole. Sound and precise work assessments are needed to guide clients to suitable interventions using a minimum of rehabilitation resources. Occupational therapy literature contains evidence that work function assessments are complex and that there is confusion over work assessment concepts. Therefore, further development and evaluation of adequate concepts and theoretical models within the area of work assessment is needed. This article proposes a conceptual framework for different dimensions of work functioning and points out important factors for work assessment. The concepts proposed and defined in the article are: work functioning, work participation, work performance, and individual capacity.     

Autism: understanding conceptual processing deficits

Autism is a behavioral diagnosis characterized by a triad of impairment, which includes impaired communication, impaired social skills, and impaired spontaneity. The outward behavior exhibited by people with autism represents a different cognitive processing style than that seen in typical development. Understanding the way people with autism process and store information is important for intervention. The majority of people diagnosed with autism do not have symptoms of mental retardation and need access to mainstream services to work on the problems presented by daily life.     

Land markets and public policy: A conceptual framework

This paper presented a conceptual framework to analyse the nature and effectiveness of land policies in a broad context of national policy-making. Special attention was given to the way in which explicit and implicit land-use policies affect land-use decisions. A classification system of land-use policies was developed and the concepts of dominance and consistency were presented. The system and concepts can be usefully applied for empirical investigations.